


Injuries Sustained by Falls

by dridri93



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Episode Related, Gen, Kix is a Good Bro, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:40:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23725456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dridri93/pseuds/dridri93
Summary: It took Kix more than a split second to react to the heart-stopping sight of his Captain falling – beingthrown, based on the arching trajectory, stars – from the top of that forsaken dusty wall screaming.--An alternate path to Landing at Point Rain, in which Kix gets the chance to inform his General as to why hurling squishy humans off tall places is bad for them.
Relationships: CT-6116 | Kix & CT-7567 | Rex
Comments: 14
Kudos: 176
Collections: TexWash's Must Reads and Rereads





	Injuries Sustained by Falls

**Author's Note:**

> First TCW fic (that I'm posting). Unbetaed, all mistakes are my own, etc - if you see a particularly egregious typo or obviously missing word, let me know!
> 
> I've seen multiple other fics dealing with this specific instance - which is good, because Rex deserves better - but I wanted to toss my own in the pot. With bonus Kix.

It took Kix more than a split second to react to the heart-stopping sight of his Captain falling – being _thrown_ , based on the arching trajectory, _stars_ – from the top of that forsaken dusty wall screaming. His mouth was already dry from the Geonosian dust that kept getting through the helmet seal, but he watched the vital signs in the corner of his HUD tick up. He’d already started running forward before something – the _General_ , jumping after Rex with a whoop – slowed Rex’s fall. His terror slipped right into rage when he got close enough to catch sight of Rex’s shaking hands, held regulation-straight at his side.

“Sir,” Kix said, stepping up to Rex’s side, one hand almost reaching out to grab his shoulder before he thought better of adding more stimulation. He pulled the med-scanner out of its pocket on the side of his pack, turning it on and entering Rex’s identifier to keep his hands busy.

Rex’s head tilted toward him, but stayed focused on General Skywalker and Commander Tano, who stood within earshot ordering the rest of the 501st to advance and looking as though nothing had happened.

Kix’s mind refused to stop listing the various traumas associated with unintentional high falls. He’d had to learn them by rote as part of flash training but imagining _Rex_ on the ground with a massive brain bleed from ruptured blood vessels wasn’t helping the panic-turned-rage that was distorting his vision.

“Sir,” he repeated, trying to get himself back together before he got himself court-martialed by yelling at a General, “Would you consent to a med-scan? Just to be sure–”

The General walked over, almost strutting as if he’d done _well_. “Hey, Rex! What’s this about a med-scan? You get shot up there?” Rex stiffened at Kix’s side.

Under his bucket, Kix snarled – as if the General didn’t _know_ what he’d done? The General glanced at him with a raised eyebrow, and that was _it_.

“General,” Kix bit out. “With your _permission_ , sir, I’d like to scan Captain Rex for potential internal hemorrhaging of the brain or abdominal cavity caused by sudden deceleration. Since you didn’t bother to slow him _down_ until we- he thought he was dead, sir. I’d also check for blaster burns if you thought it _necessary_ , but based on the state of his armor, any injuries will be internal.” He waited a beat, let the General’s other eyebrow raise to join the first one. “Sir,” he added.

Rex’s shoulders slumped. “Stand down, Lieutenant,” he sighed, his words a buzz through the helmet’s vocorder. “Just. Stand down.”

“No, no, please Kix, keep going,” the General said, eyes darkening. “You think I didn’t catch Rex properly? Do you not _trust_ me?”

Kix straightened his back into regulation at-attention as Rex seemed to curl further into himself. The rest of the 501st milled about behind the General, trying to look busy and not like they’d all been thinking something along the same lines. Commander Tano looked confused, like she hadn’t even _considered_ this could be a concern. She was just a _shiny_ , Kix had to remind himself, and she’d grown up with the Jedi who thought nothing of throwing themselves off every high place on Coruscant. Who’d grown up surrounded by beings to whom height was a thrill, not an obstacle or a death sentence.

“Sir,” Kix began. “Do you know the three most common traumas to the body after an unintentional fall?”

“What? I – no?” the General sputtered.

Kix listed them off, hands clenched behind his back to keep from dramatically counting on his fingers. “The least relevant in this case is the shattered pelvis and spinal column, sir, given that Captain Rex is capable of standing without screaming in pain.

“However, the sudden deceleration from falling at a constant speed to contacting the ground causes the blood in the body to become massively more heavy due to G-forces, which leads to the bursting of the delicate blood vessels in the brain and massive internal hemorrhaging. The same can happen in the abdomen, although that is usually more fixable given that the brain is infinitely more susceptible to pressure by fluid in the skull.” He lifted his head from regulation-straight to stare the General in the eye. “Do you consider G-forces when you slow down non-Force-sensitive beings in their falls, sir?”

The General blinked. “Wha – not consciously, but I can feel when I need to be _gentler_ , Kix, I don’t just throw people around like sacks of grain!”

“From my view, _sir_ ,” Kix said, “that’s exactly what you _did_. So you’ll excuse me if I want to check over my Captain to ensure that he’s not going to fall over from an untreated brain bleed in the middle of our next skirmish.”

Rex’s voice intervened before Kix could earn himself a court martial by continuing to piss off the General further. “I thought I told you to _stand down_ , Lieutenant,” he said, exhaustion heavy even through the vocorder. “Scan me. I don’t feel any worse than I should.”

Kix turned to Rex, shutting the General and his disbelief out of his mind to focus on a potential patient. (He couldn’t save the brothers who were shot down by the droids on that forsaken wall and bled out before he could leave his own cover to get to them, but he can at least make sure the 501st doesn’t lose their Captain, too.)

“Bucket off, sir,” Kix said gently. “All the electronics in the HUD screw up the brain scan. You know the drill.”

Rex’s shoulders heaved in a sigh, but he pulled his bucket off. Kix had to hold himself very, very still to keep himself from spinning to his General and yelling _You call this gentle?_ Rex’s eyes were both bloodshot, from the screaming that the 501st will collectively pretend they didn’t hear or from the sudden deceleration – Kix isn’t sure. There’s one way to find out.

He hears the Commander gasp when she sees Rex’s sorry state, bloodshot half-lidded eyes from the adrenaline crash and face gone waxy. The General seems to have become a statue from what Kix’s peripheral vision tells him.

“Going to scan you now, sir,” Kix narrates, making sure to keep Rex focused on him. “Toes to top, you know the drill. Try not to twitch.”

Rex grunts agreement and Kix drags the scanner up.

Nothing as serious as he was afraid of, thank the starry ancestors. A wrenched knee that looked a couple hours old, very slight deep-tissue bruising in his palms and wrists from the recoil of his DC-17s, elevated cortisol levels and heartbeat – likely from the still-subsiding stress of the fall on top of the prolonged battle – and burst capillaries in his eyes. No internal hemorrhaging in either his brain or his abdomen that this scanner could pick up, which usually meant that the patient was in the clear.

He stepped back, saving the scanner log just in case Rex tried to walk off the knee instead of submitting to having it wrapped and elevated for a few hours once the action was done. “You’re as healthy as can be expected, Captain,” he said. He reached out a careful hand and rested it on Rex’s shoulder. “Let’s head on over to the men and figure out what fire we’re jumping into next.”

Rex shook himself, looking like he’d fallen into the half-aware state most brothers did when being scanned as meticulously as Kix had scanned him. Easier not to think and thus not to react when the buzzing green light flashed over your eyes, Kix remembered. Rex straightened, fixing his bucket back over his face. With his bucket on, Kix was almost fooled into believing Rex was fresh off the gunship.

The General seemed to shake himself out of something too, and Kix spared him a glance. He raised an eyebrow under his bucket to see the General breathing deeply, gloved hand clenched around air. “Before you go, Captain,” the General said, and Rex paused to give his attention. “I… I would like to apologize. For – for not asking. And for allow- allowing you to fall so far before catching you.”

Kix raised the other eyebrow under his bucket. Well. He hadn’t expected to get an _apology_ , and by how Rex was stiff at-attention at his side Rex hadn’t expected it either. “Ah – no harm done, General, sir,” Rex said. A pause stretched out. “Maybe, ah, don’t do it again.”

The General nodded with a wan smile. “Yeah, of course.”

With that, Kix chivvied Rex toward a knot of 501st blue, all of the brothers watching without watching. “C’mon, Captain,” he said, “Let’s go reassure the troops that the great Captain Rex wasn’t brought down low by something as sorry as gravity.”

He heard Rex huff a quiet laugh under his bucket, not loud enough to be caught by the vocorder, and considered it a success.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments/kudos if you feel so inspired! Thanks for reading!
> 
> \--
> 
> If you're a nerd like me, you can find the scientific review on fall injuries that I used to inform Kix [here](https://trauma-acute-care.imedpub.com/injuries-sustained-by-falls--a-review.php?aid=18940). Summary: It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop.


End file.
